Continue to study the gospel of Mark, and Lord willing, we'll finish Mark chapter nine today. This is our 46th lesson, and I just trust that it's been a blessing to you as much as it has been to myself to study through and try to understand this precious gospel. Before we go farther, let's go ahead and pause and pray, ask God to bless our time together. Heavenly Father, Lord, we just come to you with open hands, and, Open eyes and minds, Lord, we just ask that you would bless us. We're looking to receive blessing from your word, from the Holy Spirit today. Help us, Lord, as we go through the verses in front of us to be careful and thoughtful about them. I pray that you would help us to glean the truth that you want us to learn for today and be able to apply into our lives. Please just guide and direct us, Lord, as we study this together. In Jesus' name, amen. Do you ever remember being warned about things when you were a kid? You know, like, if you keep making that face, it's going to freeze. It's going to stay that way. It's going to freeze that way. If you keep swallowing those watermelon seeds, it's going to start growing in your belly. Of course, none of this is true. Along that vein, I heard about a parent who told their kids that if the ice cream truck was playing music, it meant they were out of ice cream. Which is, again, not true, but kind of savvy on the part of the parents. I've never done that, by the way. I heard about it. And then there's many variations of the little story where the parents tell the kids, if you don't do what we say, you'll disappear just like your older brother. And the child says, I don't have an older brother. And the parent says, exactly. But those are silly warnings, none of them based on fact or truth. But there is warnings of a serious nature in the world that we see, and there's warnings in Scripture. What about these real warnings? What about when warnings aren't about ice cream trucks, but they're about life and death? There was apparently a tornado that touched down in Janesville. Did I hear that right? Last night. And there was, what was before then? Tornado warnings, right? There's watch, and then there's warnings. And warnings are when something has happened, it's been sighted, there's been a touchdown, there's been some evidence of tornado activity, and there was a real warning last night. And there's lots of other warnings and warning signs and things that we see in our lives and in this world. And it's these kinds of serious warnings that Jesus is giving here at the close of Mark chapter nine. This is one of the, I think, one of the most cryptic, difficult passages in the book so far, and maybe in totality. And what we're gonna do this morning is we're gonna do a study of the passage. We're not doing the study, and what I mean by that is I don't believe we can, in our time, exhaustively go through every little phrase. And so much more could be said than what we're gonna say this morning, that's what I'm trying to say. But there's some serious warnings here, and I believe really at the root of this, or at the heart of it, is the concept, the truth, that God takes sin seriously. It's no joke with God. He takes sin seriously. The world we live in, sin is a joke, right? We laugh, we, but in our culture, laughs it off. It becomes, it's the substance of late night talk show stand-up comedy and memes on the internet and all kinds of other things where sin is just mocked and made fun of and laughed about and brushed aside as if it's no big deal, and even encouraged sometimes. But God takes sin seriously. And I think that's really the idea behind this passage. Again, so much more could be said if we wanted to go in deeper, if time allowed for that. But I think as we look at this, That's our main application. I've divided it up into three sections. The title of the message or the lesson today, Stones, Sins, and Sacrifices. So in verse 42, we're gonna learn about some stumbling stones. In verse number 43 through 48, severe sin, and then 49 and 50, seasoned sacrifices. So if you're taking notes and you wanna write down outlines Roman numeral number one, stumbling stones. Look with me at Mark chapter nine, verse 42. Mark chapter nine, verse 42. Now we're coming out of, we're in the middle of a conversation. We cut off in the middle last week, back in 40 and 41. But here in 42, he's continuing on, and this is what Jesus said, but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. Now remember that throughout this whole passage, Jesus has been teaching the disciples about God's plan for Jesus to die and resurrect. He's brought that up twice now, and most recently, just in the near past, in where we are now. So God's plan for Jesus to die and resurrect in Jerusalem, that's one thing he's teaching them. He's also been teaching them about God's views of greatness. What does it mean to be great in the eyes of God? The disciples were arguing about who would be the greatest in the kingdom, and Jesus says the greatest are the ones that are last of all and servant of all. That's God's view of greatness. He's also been teaching them about God's view that there is no neutral ground when it comes to Jesus. We are either for him or we're against him. There's no middle ground. He came to bring a sword. Remember, we looked at that verse. And then he also has been teaching them about God's view of service. Remember, they prohibited a man that was casting demons out. And Jesus said, don't prohibit him. Again, if he's not against me, he's for me. And then he says, I want you to understand God's view of service, everything from casting out demons to giving a cup of water in my name. In God's eyes, we might not see that as equal, but in God's eyes, those are equal things, if done with the right heart attitude. So he's been trying to teach them these lessons, and here, now in verse 42, he turned the conversation to the topic of the consequences of sin. He was encouraging them in the previous verses to do right and to understand. Back in verse 37, if you have your Bibles there, Mark 9, 37, whoever receives one of these little children, and he had taken a small boy and he was holding him there and embracing him, and he draws the disciples' attention to this child. He says, whoever receives one of these little children in my name receives me. Whoever receives me receives not me, but him who sent me, speaking of the Father. So the Father and the Son, They see this ministry not just specifically to children by age, but to those weak in the faith, or the least of these, as our society would categorize them. The son and the father see that kind of love and care for the most vulnerable in our society, the most exposed, those that are in precarious life situations, to care for them. James said that true religion is the care for orphans, widows, and to keep yourself unspotted from the world. And so there's this focus that God has on the weak and the vulnerable, and he says this is so important to receive and protect these children. Now in verse 42, We have, well, what happens when we don't protect them? What happens when people cause actually these little ones, not just children, again, by age, but those weak in the faith to stumble, to turn? It could have been including the man that was casting out the demons. He wasn't one of us. He wasn't part of our inner group, but God was blessing, he was having successful ministry. He could have been included, though, in the little ones. Maybe he hadn't grown in his faith as much as he could have by this time. So we look at this warning now. The verb here, to cause, to stumble, scandalizo. It is literally to cause, to stumble, to offend, to shock, shock the conscience, if you will. Again, God takes all sin seriously. There's no exception in his book. This means to provoke a weaker Christian, to entice them away from the faith and the work they are doing because they're not part of our group. They're not doing things exactly like I do them. And this is what John and the others had just done to this man. They had offended him. They had potentially tried to, they had tried to stop him, which could have caused him to stumble in his faith, to be scandalized, if you will, spiritually speaking. And Jesus is rebuking that and warning them for the future. He mentions that he uses this graphic warning. It would be better for him. If a millstone were hung around his neck, he were thrown into the sea. This was not the small millstones that were used to grind grain by hand. This was speaking of these large millstones that were pulled by an animal, like a donkey would pull them around. And as that millstone would roll in that trough, It would crush whatever was in there, like olives or grain or whatever it was. But these were very heavy. It took a beast of burden to move them. And this is the large millstone. This is the millstone Jesus is talking about based on the wording. And if you think about what it would be like to have something this heavy be tied around one's neck and then cast off of like a cliff or something into the sea. There's no salvation, if you will, from that. There's no way to recover. That millstone is going to take you to the bottom of the sea much faster than you can try to help yourself out of it, even to untie it or something. Punishment of this kind actually was not unheard of at the time. The Jewish historian Josephus wrote about this kind of execution being carried out. So this was something that the disciples and those listening would have had some idea of and would have been a very powerful visual in their minds. So Jesus was saying that this kind of death, drowning by millstone, would be better than something else. And he explained that something else in the next section. So Roman numeral two in our outline, severe sin. And we've divided this up into three sections. There's three sections in Jesus' warning here. So we're gonna go through this. The first one, so again, if you're taking notes, letter A would be changing what we do, verses 43 and 44. It says this, if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed rather than having two hands and go to hell into the fire that shall never be quenched where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. He's gonna repeat this kind of thing two more times. and we'll look at those, but I want to say from the beginning, what Jesus was saying here was never meant to be taken literally. Jesus is not advocating self-mutilation of the physical body. We have to grasp that right from the beginning and know that. It would have violated other laws, and I think it would have violated the character of God in a sense. He was using a metaphoric hyperbole using extreme symbolic language in order to shock the listener, to grasp their attention, and help them understand how serious this was, and to get their attention focused on the right thing. So these are not about self-mutilation of the physical body. There is a spiritual meaning. To remove the hand, the hand is what we do things with. So to remove the hand is to stop doing the things or stop allowing the things in one's life that could lead the little ones to sin. This is all in context of verse 42. He says, don't cause these little ones to stumble. And certainly the person's own sin is within range of this, but that's the focus here. What in our lives, what in the lives of the disciples, we're expected to ask that question, What is going on in my life that could lead to sin? It's not necessarily a sin in itself. But what is going on in my life that I need to take an extreme measure with? What do I need to deal with? The danger of leading others to sin is eliminated, or at least greatly lessened, when we deal with the sin in our own life. So it's better to enter into life maimed, better to go through life missing out on something that you hold near and dear to yourself. Does everyone like having hands here? They're pretty precious to us, right? We would probably be willing to pay exorbitant amounts of money to save our hands if that's what we had to do. We use our hands every single day. They're precious, they're important to us. And Jesus is saying here, what is so important to you? What has you so enamored? What is precious to you, maybe even as precious as your physical hand, that could be leading you astray and leading others astray? And he says to do what with it? Cut it off. Take whatever extreme measure is necessary to remove the thing in your life that's pulling you towards sin and pulling others with you. What extreme measures do you have to take? Do I have to take in our lives so that we can remove the potential to lead us into sin and to lead others into sin as well? The word translated hell here is from the word Gehenna. which is a Greek word that's transliterated from two Hebrew words, meaning Valley of Hinnom. This Valley of Hinnom was a deep valley on the south and west side of Jerusalem that was a garbage and sewer dump in Jesus' day. But in generations past, this had been the site of child sacrifices to Moloch during certain Jewish kings' reigns. This valley became a symbol of the place of punishment because both worms and fire were constantly consuming the refuse. So you had this, it was filled with maggots, if you will, not to gross anyone out, but that's the picture here, and fires constantly burning as garbage and sewage waste was placed and pushed into this and poured into this area. Now, when we read passages, especially like this, we have to look at it through the lens of Scripture as a whole and understand the context, because as believers, as believers, are we in danger of going to hell if we're truly saved? Are we in danger of that? No. So we have to be really careful as we go through these kinds of texts. We have to consider Jesus' original audience and the meanings there. We have to remember that he had not been to the cross yet. The law was still in effect. And again, this is where I was, when I introduced this and we started, there's so much more to say about the passage than we're going to have time to get into today. So if we're born again saints of God, we're not in danger of going to hell, but does God still take our sins seriously? Oh yeah, oh yes. So when we read this, we do have to take into account the rest of scripture. We have to go to the gospel passages of the New Testament in the epistles to understand, okay, we're eternally secure in Christ. We're sealed by the spirit according to Ephesians. So I have to keep that in one hand and keep this text in Mark in the other and try to reconcile this in my mind. And it's not going to be a perfect reconciliation because this was spoken before that was in effect. So we have to keep these things in mind and apply them properly to our lives. We're not in danger of the lake of fire, but Can we experience consequences of sin in our life today? Oh yeah. The wages of sin is what? Death. Now we use that when we share the gospel and we often point to the lake of fire and we point to hell, right, as the permanent place of eternal suffering for those that don't put their faith and trust in Christ. But the wages of sin is death. Death, sin always causes death. It doesn't always mean that that person's gonna go to hell in the end if they're a believer, right? But when we sin against one another, we have death in our relationships. When we sin against our family or against a brother or sister in Christ, we have the death of trust. There's many opportunities for death to come in, not permanent death and cast into hell death, but these other consequences of sin, the pain, loss of relationships. What about our testimony? It's destroyed, right? So we have a death of our testimony. We can experience this hell on earth, if you will, because of the consequences of our sin. The worm does not die, represents, if you will, the inner suffering. And sometimes we go through life, we make a bad choice, we choose a sin, and we repent and we come back to the Lord and we just, we know we're forgiven, but the regret, right, that's there. The worm does not die, the inner suffering. The fire is not quenched, the outer suffering. Sin is like a poison and it has long-lasting effects. Yes, I know I'm going to heaven. I know I didn't lose my salvation. But is there suffering and can there be different types of death? Yes, there can be. Paul wrote in Romans 6, one and two, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? We have to take it seriously. Certainly not, God forbid. How shall we who died to sin live any longer therein? He's calling, Paul's writing, by this time in Romans, he's made it to a person, he's speaking to someone that is a believer. They've been saved by the grace of God through their faith in Christ. But do we continue in sin and take God's grace for granted? No. Somebody had a hand up over there. Mike, was that you? Death refers to separation. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Separation, death, very much synonymous. So yeah. when we sin against family members, loved ones, other Christians, unbelievers. It's a severing, it's a separation from what was potentially once there is now broken. That doesn't mean it can't be put together again. It's not necessarily a permanent thing, but there is that effect. True. True. Yeah. Sure. Yes, yes, it can, to Brad's point, it can be physical death, even for a Christian, physical death. Ananias and Sapphira are a good example. Paul talked about this when the Corinthians were abusing the Lord's Supper. He said, some of you are sick and some of you sleep, meaning God said, you're coming home now. I'm not leaving you down there to drag my name through the mud any longer. You're coming home. And so yes, physical death is there. Not eternal death for the believer, but certainly many other kinds of deaths. So God calls us. What are we doing? What actions are we taking? What are we allowing in our life that could cause us to sin or cause others to sin? We need to be severe with it. We need to cut it off. That's changing what we do. The second thing he says, letter B here on our outline, changing where we go. So that starts in verse 45 and also verse 46. It says, and if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame rather than having two feet, to be cast into hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched, where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. So the same pattern, the word pattern is used here, this time with a different kind of sin focus. The foot represents where we go in this life, the places, the locations, the relationships, even, that might be leading us astray. Jesus is saying, abandon them, get away from them. Yeah, but everybody knows me there, and I have connections, and I have friends. So what? If it's something that's leading you astray, leading others astray potentially cut it off take a severe approach abandon that this is what Joseph did back in the Old Testament you remember that Joseph was sold into slavery to Egypt by his brothers of course God was working in the background throughout this whole time but he was sold into slavery to a man in Potiphar and Potiphar basically ended up giving Joseph control of everything on his estate. He was the manager, the steward, if you will, he had command of all the servants, he was ordering all the goods, he was, you know, crops, whatever. He was in charge. Joseph, the Potiphar just basically had a place to eat. I mean, the household working was up to Joseph. There was only one part of the household that wasn't given to Joseph, which was what? Potiphar's wife. She wasn't exactly a chaste woman, and so she has been advancing on Joseph now for quite a long time, sexually tempting him, let's just say what it is, right? Come and lie with me, come and sleep with me. She's like the woman in Proverbs that we read about, the boisterous, seductive nature. So she calls Joseph, and it says in Genesis 39, 11, happened about this time when Joseph went into the house to do his work. He's doing the right thing, right? He's got a sweet job. It's going really well. None of the men of the house were inside that she caught him by his garment. Very bold, brash person. She caught him by his garment saying, lie with me. But what did Joseph do? But he left his garment in her hand and fled and ran outside. He cut off his foot, figuratively speaking. Not his physical foot, he used that to get out of the house. But he said, I'm not staying here one more second. I'm gonna take an extreme measure. I don't care what she, it's not like he was like, oh, I can't believe she accused me. I think he knew her character by this time. He said, forget this. No job is worth this. I'm not gonna sin against God. And if you go back and read earlier in the chapter, that's the reason he gives her for not sleeping with her. is I can't sin against God and do that. And now he's like, I'm cutting it off. He's doing exactly what Jesus is commanding here. If your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. His job, his place of employment was tempting him constantly, constantly. Finally, he said, enough. I'm cutting this off. I'm gonna take a severe approach. It doesn't matter what she tells Potiphar. It doesn't matter what she tells the other servants. I know I'm innocent and I'm out of here. He was willing to take an extreme measure. He was willing to literally, not literally in a physical way, but cut off his foot. How easy would it have been to compromise in this situation? Wouldn't that have been super easy? Nobody would have known except, well, God, but it would have been so easy to fall into sin. It says that no one else was in the house. It's giving us the scenario. No one was there. No one would know. And man, hadn't God kicked him out of his home and what difference did God make? He's back there in Canaan with his family. He's never gonna see them again. I'm starting a new life. It would have been so easy for him to do that and compromise because he's got a really good job. And where's he gonna go, by the way? He was sold here as a slave. He's running away. That doesn't usually bode well for slaves to run from their place of employment. I don't know that he left the property per se, but he knew everything now is in jeopardy. She could say anything she wants about me. And maybe she had threatened that, we don't know. But he chose to use his physical feet to cut off the spiritual foot, his job, to have an extreme measure to sever that connection in order to run. So we're called to change what we do. We're called to change where we go. And lastly, we're called to change what we see. Verses 47 and 48. All right. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye rather than having two eyes and be cast into hellfire where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. What we see with our eyes has a very powerful effect on our body and on our mind. The eye gate is an amazing part of the body. If you think about all the processes that are happening even right now, You're looking up here, you might be looking at the screen. If you're online, you're looking at a screen and you're seeing these things. Your eyes are constantly taking in and processing information, or the brain is processing. The eyes are taking it in though, right? And we can see color, we can see depth and distance if our eyes are working well. And what an amazing thing, the eye takes in information at astounding rates of speed. The brain processes that and stores that information in our memories. And so being good stewards of our bodies includes what goes into our eyes. So we must guard this with vigilance. When we let our guard down, we are putting ourselves and the little ones that we influence at great risk, at great risk. Job, in defending himself to his friends, who weren't the greatest friends, it turns out, but he said this, I have made a covenant with my eyes. Why then should I look upon a young woman? The men were accusing him of different sins, and he says, no, I've made this covenant. He's expressing his passion for purity in regard to his eyes in a sexual way, but really our eyes can take in other things that lead us to sin. 1 John 2.16 talks about that all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, it's not of the Father, but it is of the world. So the lust of the eyes can literally be anything that we desire more than God. So it's about priorities. What are we gazing at, if you will, in our daily life? What are we looking at? What are we looking to find? What are we searching for? What are we staring upon? When it comes to sin, Jesus' teaching here shows us that we must take severe action. I talked about our hands being precious. I think our feet are precious. But I think if we had to choose between a foot, a hand, or an eye, pretty sure we'd all pick the eye. At least I would anyway. Our eyes are precious. In fact, When anything happens, I mean, that's the part of the body, we put our hands in front of our eyes. Let our hands take it, because we don't want that going into our eyes, right? We have this natural inclination to flinch. Why? Because we're protecting our eyes. What is so precious in our life that we need to examine? Let God speak to you about this. This is gonna be different for everybody, because again, it's not necessarily a sin. but it's something precious, something that causes us or leads us to sin. It could just be a location. Again, it could be a relationship. It could be any of these things. I mentioned this verse earlier, but as we kind of wrap up this section, James said this, pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows and their trouble and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. Try not to separate those two things, the orphans and widow ministry, and unspotted from the world. I think they're supposed to be bound together. You see in the New King James here, the and is in italics, which means it's not part of the original text. I think the saying here, I really believe, to keep oneself unspotted from the world is one of the ways to minister to orphans and widows, to have that connection, because How else will we lead if not by example? Notice also the least of these wording, kind of paralleling what we've seen Jesus teach in Mark 9. The least of these. He says the little ones, the orphans, the widows, the most vulnerable. in society? Are you caring for them? And not just going and doing things and caring for them physical ways, but keeping yourself unspotted from the world is another way to care for them, because you don't want to lead them astray. Hands, feet, and eyes, all are precious. They're important parts of our bodies. Here, remember, they represent precious things that we often cling to, not necessarily sinful things, but those precious things that lead us against God lead ourselves and others into sin. Again, so much more could be said about this. We're gonna move on for time's sake. Finally, this morning, seasoned sacrifice is our third and final point on our outline. We're gonna divide this up into two parts. So the first one, letter A, seasoned by fire. Verses 49 and 50, as Jesus concludes this, If the previous verses from 42 and on were difficult, 49 and 50 I think rank at the highest of trying to understand. So again, I know so much more could be said, so much more scholarship has gone into this, and time just doesn't allow us to chase all of that, but I think there's definitely some things we can draw out and apply to our lives. So seasoned with fire. Look with me, Mark 9, 49. For everyone will be seasoned with fire. We're gonna stop right there and focus on that. First of all, there's a Mosaic Law connection here, this idea of season with fire. It's found in a number of places, but look with me here at Numbers 31, verses 22 and 23. Only the gold, the silver, the bronze, the iron, the tin, and the lead, everything that can endure fire, you shall put through the fire and it shall be clean. It shall be purified with the water of purification, but all that cannot endure fire you shall put through water. So what kind of fire are we talking about here? Earlier it was Gehenna representing hell, but here there's a different focus. The context here, even though it's the same Greek word, remember context is king in terms of understanding scripture, so it's the same Greek word for fire, but the context here I believe tells us that this is This fire is not the fire of hell, but the fire of purification. Fire is a testing agent. If something can withstand the heat of fire, it passes the test, so to speak. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians 3. 1 Corinthians 3, we're gonna start in verse 11. Add another layer to this. 1 Corinthians 3, look with me at verse 11. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one's work will become clear, for the day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test each one's work of what sort it is. If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, yet so as by fire. Do you not know that you are the temple of God? The Spirit of God dwells in you. If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, which temple you are. So the foundation, if we go back to verse 11, is always the same for everyone. That's a believer in Christ. It's Jesus Christ. He's the foundation. Everyone in heaven will have that in common. Some will be the only thing they have in common, potentially. But Christ, Christ is the foundation. He is the only way, truth, and life. However, after we're saved, we have a Christian life to live. That's the building on the foundation. And God is keeping track. God is recording. He's keeping record of how we live after we're saved. And in the end, what Paul is ascribing here, we're going to stand before Christ at His behemoth seat And our life choices will be seasoned with fire. They will be tested by the fire of purification. So all the things that we did, all the ministry, all the work, all the deeds, if you will, will be passed through the fire of purification. So the things we did in selfishness or with wrong attitudes, sinful attitudes, greed, immorality, that's the wood, hay, and straw, that will be burned up. which in a sense is a blessing, because then we can enter eternity without that, but it'll leave us without the reward as well. Meanwhile, all the righteous, godly things we choose to do, the gold, silver, and precious stones, these are things of eternal value. These will pass through the fire and come out as the gold, silver, and precious stones. That will be the Christians' seasoning with fire. We will be seasoned with fire. We'll be tested in these fires of purification. Secondly, letter B, as we get toward the end this morning, seasoned not just with fire, but seasoned with salt. The second part of the verse, Mark 9, 49, for everyone will be seasoned with fire and every sacrifice will be seasoned with salt. Again, there's, like the fire, this harkens back to the Old Testament sacrificial system. Animals were placed on the altar and burned. The law commanded that salt be placed on the top of the sacrifice. Leviticus 2.13 is an example. Every offering of your grain offering you shall season with salt. You should not allow the salt of the covenant of your God to be lacking from your grain offering. With all your offerings, you shall offer salt. Like fire, salt is a purifying agent. When we go through the trials of this life. There's a benefit if we suffer wisely. Now we're close on time here, but turn with me to the book of James, chapter one. He gives us some encouragement. James chapter one, verse two. James one, verse two. My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. Verse four, but let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. So James is encouraging us. You're gonna be seasoned, if you will, by this purification process. Your life is gonna go through trials, and we can go through them fighting them and and becoming bitter and angry, or we can go through the trials looking for what God is trying to teach and help us to grow. How else do you get patience but by going through seasons of life where you need patience? It doesn't just come about. That fruit of the Spirit, yes, it's from the Spirit. But it's like, why am I going through this trial? Could be that the Spirit is trying to grow His fruit of patience in you. That could be what's happening. In fact, I would say most likely is what's happening. So our trials, our salt, produce patience, and then he said patience produces maturity. So how does a Christian become mature in their faith? Well, they go through trials, they learn patience, and they become mature. That's the process. It's not always pleasant. We are called to be living sacrifices. Romans 12 verse one, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies, your physical bodies he's speaking of, a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. Jesus said, everyone. If we look back at our text, everyone will be seasoned with fire. Every sacrifice will be seasoned with salt. Everyone will go through the process. No one's exempt. No one's exempt. It's not if, but when. And if we can keep the finished result in mind, it will greatly help us endure the trials. A couple more verses as we conclude. of the final verse in our passage today, Mark 9, 50. Salt is good, but if the salt loses its flavor, how will you season it? Have salt in yourselves and have peace with one another. So besides being a purifying agent, salt is also known for being a preservative. It preserves whatever it's packed around. We are to be preserving one another. We're to be the salt in each other's lives. Have salt in yourselves. And how does salt preserve like a piece of meat? It has to touch it. It has to be in contact with it and be packed around it. And so as we look to obey these commands and understand these teachings, We're to be preserving one another. That means we've got to be in contact with each other, not physical contact, but relational, meaningful relationships with one another so we can encourage. If we don't know each other, how do we encourage other than a passing and generic encouragement? But when we know what each other are struggling with, we know what the struggles and the pain are that someone's going through, then we can encourage them. We have a trust relationship and we're sharing our weaknesses. So we know that there's a struggle and so we can exhort, we can edify one another. We can help one another through this sanctification Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one. We've run out of time this morning. Put the last verse up there. Salt is good, what if it loses its flavor? Are we salty in a good way? That word gets used to mean kind of cranky, like, oh, they're salty. Let's use it in a good way, the way that Christ gives, the way that Paul wrote. that we are salt, we are preserving and helping one another. As we conclude here, are we aware of the impact we have on the least of these? Do we take our sins as serious as God does? What radical extreme measures might we need to take in order to not offend the little ones in our lives? Do we view trials and conflict as ways for us to grow, to glorify God? Let's take these warnings of Jesus to heart. Father, thank you so much for your word. Oh Lord, there's so much richness and depth in every passage, Lord, and we do our best to just try to glean from it what we can, so I pray, Father, that as the Word of God settles into our hearts this week, that we would allow it to transform us by the power of the Spirit, and that we would be vigilant and aware of the things. Please show us, Lord. Sometimes we're unaware of the things in our lives that need to change because of the possibility, potential for leading us and others to sin. Lord, please help us to submit to the trials of life so that we can learn patience and maturity. And I pray, Lord, that you'd help us to have that salt in ourselves as we encourage each other. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Thank you guys, have a great day.